Friday, March 20, 2009

About Lindaraxa's Garden

Lindaraxa's Garden is one of the most photographed parts of the Alhambra Palace located in Granada, Spain. Washington Irving wrote in his Tales of the Alhambra:

"One window of the royal sleeping-room commanded a prospect of the Generalife and its embowered terraces; another looked out into the little secluded garden I have mentioned, which was decidedly Moorish in its character, and also had its history. It was in fact the garden of Lindaraxa, so often mentioned in descriptions of the Alhambra, but who this Lindaraxa was I had never heard explained.

A little research gave me the few particulars known about her. She was a Moorish beauty who flourished in the court of Mohamed the Left-Handed, and was the daughter of his loyal adherent, the governor of Malaga, who sheltered him in his city when driven from the throne. On regaining his crown, Mohamed rewarded the governor for his fidelity. His daughter had her apartment in the Alhambra, and was given by the king in marriage to Nasar, a young prince descended from AbenHud the Just. Four centuries had elapsed since the fair Lindaraxa passed away, yet how much of the fragile beauty of the scenes she inhabited remained! The garden still bloomed [66] in which she delighted; the fountain still presented the crystal mirror in which her charms may once have been reflected; the alabaster, it is true, had lost its whiteness; the basin beneath, overrun with weeds, had become the lurking-place of the lizard, but there was something in the very decay that enhanced the interest of the scene, speaking as it did of that mutability, the irrevocable lot of man and all his works."

Lindaraxa was also the name of my home in Havana, Cuba from which I departed in 1960 and have never returned. This blog is in memory of a time gone by but a lifestyle not forgotten.

Lindaraxa's Garden, the blog, is my recipe journal where I write about recipes I have collected, cooked and served throughout the years. Often the recipes are from my cookbook collection, sometimes not- they might come from a family member, the Internet, or I might write about a recipe I created myself. Regardless of the source, cooking has always been a passion and no matter the circumstances, we will always entertain